What is funny? A clever play on words? A man in funny shoes being hit in the face with a plank? Monty Python’s parrot-sketch? Russel Peters talking about Indian customs?
Literature and humour have always made good bedfellows. Reading any Discworld novel is guaranteed to result in much smiling and regular chuckles – often because you know someone exactly like that. Riotous Assembly requires regular breaks to catch your breath after all the laughing, and even War and Peace is said to reward determined readers with some comic gems.
Humour has the ability to turn the mundane into something enjoyable, or at the very least, into something tolerable. We often find humour in dire situations to help us cope.
As with everything else in life however, humour is not universally shared, and one man’s joke is often another man’s insult. I love dry humour, dad jokes and clever sarcasm. In writing the 3G series, I inevitably found occasion to introduce some humour into the narrative. The books are categorised as action-thrillers and perhaps mercifully, humour plays only a minor role. I believe most of the quips to be weak enough to be funny for that reason alone. Presumably, those inclined to favour books of a certain genre probably have certain common traits and preferences. In a world obsessed with perceived political correctness and an eagerness to be offended by everything, I truly hope that readers may be mildly amused and that my sense of humour will not offend any sensitive soul.